Agenda:Outreach - Postcard mailed Monday 3/19, already gotten more traffic to the website & the survey - Inner-Church continues to get volunteers - Door-to-Door - Hoping for better weather weekend after EasterWebsite - Seen an increase in traffic/interest, more people have taken survey onlinePlot Rentals - Currently have 17 plot rentals, including organizations and people in community Garden Planning/Cost- Jim Dunn (CCE Master Gardener CHOW Conklin) came to meeting and gavehis input/drawings: - Phase 1: 176' Fencing & raised beds cost about $1,000 - Good idea to include streamers on top of fence - Raised beds could be lined with black plastic around the raised bed frames - Best advice: build frames, add the dirt, & then add the fence - Garden likely to be located on lot near the apartment buildings

- Phase 2 Urban Farm would be same cost in fencing but overall cost could be lower if d/n use raised beds - Need to think about a gate, at CHOW made a double gate just in case they needed a truck - Phase 2 can hit a wall, because you're bound by your equipment. At a certain point you need a tractor to till the earth - Darrell has a friend in the antique tractor group - Interesting to note: d/n need a fence for onions, garlic, corn, potatoes - Fence plan: - Use post hole digger and put in 4x4, then pound in tee post supports - Can put concrete around 4x4 posts, FEMA didn't object at Conklin - 4ft welded wire, 8 in into ground for woodchucks, with tough deer netting to cover over the wire and go up 7 ft to keep out deer, and down into ground over wire netting to keep rabbits out - Water line already marked on Davis, but possible that there's a water line on Fairview, potential to put in 2 water lines so it's easily accessible for both the Urban and the Community GardenLand Swap - Still waiting to hear from lawyer, who just needs to go to clerk's office and clear up final details, then need to wait for State to approve the land transferWater- Jason met with Eileen Konecny, who is very supportive of the project. Also talked to the water dept head, who didn't see any problem with the free water agreement. - Jason will see if need a Resolution for the free water agreement To Do- Jason: Put Phase 1 & 2 drawings together, ask Amelia to come to meeting and listen to where we're at- Put budget into the proposal- Door to door outreach, hoping for weekend after Easter- Waiting for Linda at CCE to give her input about the draft of the proposal - Set date for property swap

Waiting for weather to break, should be able to finish in a day or two

Website

Hoping postcard brings more survey takers

Plot Rentals

This is one of the most important metrics. We need to over-subscribe.

No new plot rentals since last week.

Garden Planning

12-bed Community Garden

Raised beds will be on grass

Have drawing of 12 raised beds with 176’ of fence

Need drawing of where garden will be located on lot

Need fencing plan with drawing and details

Need raised bed construction details

Need budget

Read over Draft Proposal

Social Media

Endwell Community Garden Facebook group

Land Swap

Update from Pastor Darryl

Water

Get update from Rich on meeting with Village of Endicott

Dan Schofield, ToU Public Works, says “will not be a problem to get water pipes installed, but we need to have the property transfers all done.”

Amelia Dolce, VINES Director, says “I met with Eileen Konecny on Friday. She said she thinks they should be able to do something about this. I just emailed her a copy of the City of Binghamton legislation that allows free water & free installation. I'll let you know what I hear.”

Outreach - Flyers & Postcards Printed & Ready to Go ($200 for 300 postcards) - Send postcards tomorrow, 3/15 - Hold off on Door-to-Door until better weather, people less likely to be engaged - Inner Church: Petitions ongoing, table set up with a few signed up to volunteer - Website - continues to receive form submissions, & with postcards going out soon the website should get more trafficPlot Rentals - We have 10 Plot Rentals (a number of Groups Interested in participating- Triumphant Church, Endwell Rotary, Northminster Presbyterian) - Plot size is 4x8 (image seen above) - Question: Where do Raised Plots go, on grass or asphalt? - Answer: Biggest issues with asphalt is heat, so to mitigate each plot would need which an isolation barrier, be raised on pallets, with fabric on the bottom, so doesn't touch heat of pavement. To make it easier for all, we'll plan to build on the grass.

Garden Planning, 3 Phases:1) 12 Bed Community Garden - Keep Asphalt for parking - Preliminary Garden Dimensions: 32' x 56', with 12 4'x6' Raised beds on grass with 176' of fencing (roughly $30/ft) ---- Image Below - Need to calculate height for raised bed - 12"? - Garden location will be near apts so located near water, next to asphalt, with 2 permanent corners with room to expand towards back end of lot- What kind of wood to make raised beds out of? - VINES uses Pressure Treated Pines. In JC Community Garden, Lowes donated lumber, treated without Chemicals, and lined with Felt to take away stigmatism - Need a drawing of the Raised Bed and the Felt - Need Jim Dunn's (Master Gardener @ CCE) input, need picture of what the fence will look like from the side. Try to get him to attend one of our meetings - CHOW garden in Conklin (fencing & set-up) as example - Jason Speaking with Dan Scofield about the Water Line - Blacktop is a benefit in the future for accessibility, with raised beds higher​ and v shaped - Can contact Broome County Jail to Mow unused portions of lot for Free Once/week

Land Swap- Met with Jim Savage rep for Tioga Bank, he sees no problems that would hold up the processWater- Amelia meeting with the Village of Endicott soon- Binghamton City pays all the water for VINES Binghamton Gardens, they don't even have a meter, b/c most of what pay for is sewage and that's not a factor here.____________________________________________________________________________________Begin Filling out the VINES Application- Why do "you" want to start a community Garden? * Decided to define who "You"/we are: We are Broome County Gov, CCE and TLC -- marriage of government, education, and church. Our Goals are:Gov: fight blight and insidious crime to help stabilize a transitional neighborhood, reduce government's oversight of vacant lot TLC: bring unity to a troubled neighborhood, bless neighborhoodCCE: give the community the tools it needs to grow and become educated on how to grow food; give a man a fish, feed for a day, teach and feed for life

Any organizations interested? Yes -Need to identify them and make a list

How will we build/integrate community around garden?- Phase 1: Community Garden - Watermelon Time (free fundraiser for the Garden), with Park Elements - CCE Provides Independent Support - continuous training run by Master Gardeners to local community; built, grown, and sustained by CCE - Educate Community: seed starting, permaculture, shade gardens, microgreens - Build day kick off community connection, and other work days to bring people together - Yoga in the Garden- Phase 2: Urban Farm - Harvest Festival - Plenty of Parking - Fruit Trees in future (level of experience, w/ a well formed plan it coud work)

Access to food? - Food desert, Wegmans & Weis, miles away- Church dedicated to helping people's access to healthy fresh food, giving is a way of life, plan to have youth group grow food, tend garden, and give food away...can donate it to CHOW- Rotary wants to rent plots out to needy families- Food goes well beyond those who will be renting plots, expand outwards to community who can't access food or don't have time to garden

Typical Garden Members Commute?- Need info from to gain better sense, Plan to wait until outreach is done before answering - Nearby Bus Route- Parking Lot right next to the Community Garden - Many will come from right across the parking lot (from church)

Additional fundraising capacity or fundraising ideas to support?- Lots of partner organizations (Tioga State as well as many others, Need to make list)- Watermelon Time Picnic (8/4?) to raise money for garden - Need Tent, Table and Chairs - Bounce House & Games, DJ Milo from Triumphant Life Church - Send mail out before to get people to donate to Sponsor Tables, etc - Volunteer Mallory, who has experience with fundraisers, can help- Harvest Fest____________________________________________________________________________________Action for Next Meeting:Chris: Ask Jim Dunn Fence Questions or if he could attend. Need notes on CHOW Garden, Fence and How Raised bed set upJason: Put Gov/CCE/TLC Voices to each of the proposal questions and begin to write up completed portions of the proposal. Send postcards to 300 + people. Make next week's Agenda, Update about Dan Scofield and Water LineEmily: FB Post, & Website NotesDarrell: Lawyer set up a meeting with Landbank hopefully set a Date

Update from Pastor Daryl on land transfer progress. Progressing forward, no issues identified.

Discussion on decomposing the proposal.

TLC has ‘re-pitched’ the community garden to the congregation.

Feedback on where to build the raised beds. How does that work with black top. Roots/drainage/etc..? (AI: need to contact Chris / Amanda CCE/Vines)

AI: Jason Send post card out next week.

AI: Jason need to bring enough garden proposal work book to the next meet

AI: Jason/Chris Focus and finish Strength and weakness

Next meeting 3:45 3/14/18.

Short term goals/plan

Garden Planning TeamSteering Committee Team

SWOT input / review (can be real time/ off line depending on time)

Initial SWOT input:

Strengths: (split into phase 1 / phase 2)

Strong Leadership and Support for the community garden Legislative Triumphant Life ChurchCornell Cooperative ExtensionOasisEndwell RotaryVinesAccess to many resourcesLocation (sun exposure / water access)Site controlParkingScalabilityCommunity need (food desert)Accessibility

Weaknesses:

Pest Management, fence in a flood area. Requires special provisions. (Jim Dunn can help here.AI: Chris to talk to Jim about a fencing plan.)Seed starting (need to establish or at least we are thinking about)Sustaining Funding (need a funding plan) (move because we have a plan to use yearly watermelon time event to this locations)Community Outreach plan (see above. This can be moved out of here)Business support (TLC/Country Hearts/BAE?/Visions FCU/ Tioga CU)

Opportunities:

Need to Develop a Roadmap (1yr 3yr 5yr plan/vision and how to get there)

Define future plans

1st year thoughts

Outreach program

Raise bed rental

Funding plan

Metric collection

Establish a steering committee

Establish a garden planning committee

Continuous improvement backed by metric collections

This data can be used as a toll gate for decisions making (go/ no go)

Volunteer hours

Bed utilization

Back log

Garden production / quantity / vegetable selection (what grows good, what does not and what is in demand? i.e. we have great success growing hot peppers but nobody wants them.